The Poison of the Bee 



the Cetonia, the repetition was of no value 

 unless there was a change of prey. What was 

 the new victim submitted to the butcher's 

 knife? Apparently, a large Spider, since the 

 Tarantula and the Epeira^ call for two 

 thrusts. And the prentice Scolia, who used at 

 first to sting under the throat, had the skill, 

 at her first attempt, to begin by disarming 

 her adversary and then to go quite low down, 

 almost at the end of the thorax, to strike the 

 vital point. I am utterly incredulous as to her 

 success. I see her eaten up if her lancet 

 swerves and hits the wrong spot. Let us look 

 impossibility boldly in the face and admit that 

 she succeeds. I then see the offspring, which 

 have no recollection of the fortunate event 

 save through the belly — and then we are 

 postulating that the digestion of the car- 

 nivorous larva leaves a trace in the memory 

 of the honey-sipping insect — I see the off- 

 spring, I say, obliged to wait at long intervals 

 for that inspired double thrust and obliged 

 to succeed each time under pain of death for 

 them and their descendants. To accept this 

 host of impossibilities exceeds all my faculties 



'The Clarden Spider. Cf. The I.tfr of the Spider: 

 chaps, ix. to .\iv. and appciulix. — Translator's Sole. 



363 



